


Break Every Chain

by attaccabottoni



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Where Everyone Is A Ninja
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 17:43:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5975728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attaccabottoni/pseuds/attaccabottoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A hunter nin and his target have an unexpected crossing of paths in between missions. Friendly conversation happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Break Every Chain

**Author's Note:**

> What is even happening, idk you guys. I dedicate this to my older brother, who was watching Naruto while I was talking with my younger sister about Les Miserables. I wouldn't actually know anything about Naruto, and definitely wouldn't have this out-of-nowhere AU idea while having coffee this morning, if not for him. If you have no idea about Naruto, all you need to know is that the ninja world can be violent and does not spare children, there have been wars while Javert was chasing after Valjean (so pretty much like 19th century France but with powers), and in the last one, a technique was cast and it caused everyone to dream about their deepest desires.

'What I wouldn't give for a sentient sword that also counts as a chakra power source,' thinks Javert as he attempts to wriggle his inert body to a more comfortable position on the ground.

The soft voice of the young Konoha medic nin who found him earlier is again within the range of his hearing. "His chakra is severely drained that he can't move, so I need you to watch him if his condition stabilizes while I deal with the wounded." Much to his growing annoyance, he could not even lift his head to see her or the other person to whom she is giving instructions. He decides he feels even worse than the aftermath of the Fourth Shinobi World War, or even that weeklong recovery after his chuunin exams, and in Kiri, that was saying something.

A familiar voice interrupts the dark turn of his thoughts. "Javert?" 

"Oh, you know each other! It really is a good thing that we were passing this way back to the village. If he starts feeling better, you can help him sit up." He hears the rustle of cloth that means a quick hug, and a chirpy, "Thanks, Papa," before her light footsteps fade away.

"Thank you for not saying anything," he hears Valjean say over the uneven rhythm of his footsteps coming closer.

"Is she that Suna kunoichi’s daughter you were blabbering about the last time I saw you?"

"Yes. Fantine died before we even reached the end of the desert, so I buried her there and went to Kusagakure to retrieve Cosette." Valjean finally comes into view and sits by Javert's left side.

"You've been in Konoha all this time," Javert remarks aloud, seeing the symbol on Valjean's forehead protector.

"I remembered the kindness the Third Hokage showed me after I defected from Kiri, so I thought I could at least risk trying to go there and ask if he could keep Cosette safe. Thankfully, it was Jiraiya who found us trying to enter the village, and when he and Sandaime-sama vouched for us to the authorities, they also helped us make a home in Konoha." Valjean eyes him warily. "Are you here to continue where we left off?"

"I can barely feel my fingers," Javert mutters. Earlier, he had insisted that his sword remained in his slack right hand if he's going to be maskless while being treated, and the medic nin bargained that he can have it under the condition that he remains still until she deems it safe for him to move. He wonders from whom the girl learned that now familiar pleading tone. "Ask me again when I recover enough to resume my longest-running A-rank mission."

Valjean raises his eyebrows. "I'm surprised I am not fending off your wolf summons from trying to tear off my other leg right now. I find it hard to imagine they're not always with you, if you're out hunting."

Javert can’t begin to imagine at what point did Valjean start to think that his lamed leg can be joked about. "I haven't been ordered to go after missing nin for years. Since the reforms under the Fifth Mizukage, there hasn't been a surfeit of missions for hunter nin, so we do regular ANBU missions for most part."

"I could upset Cosette if I had to resort to hurting summons while defending myself, so I guess I have the current peace we enjoy to thank for that." Javert notices the qualifier Valjean put for 'peace' there, and he muses on the chances of the Kiri shinobi of his generation learning to stop being pessimistic and paranoid. "I thought that when I was declared dead and dropped from the Bingo Book, I would never see you again."

"I also thought that when I woke up this morning, I wouldn't end up with chakra exhaustion by saving Kumo chunnin from dying in some elaborate exploding tag trap, and yet here I am being tended to by a presumed dead missing nin and his adoptive daughter."

"Wait, if you're here, then you also volunteered for the explosive landmine detection team?" Valjean's eyes were wide as he glanced between him and to the distance where the medic nin is healing the group from Kumo with the ridiculous alphabet names, exclaiming their relief and gratitude.

"It's a thankless mission that can't be risked using just any sensor type." He is sorely tempted to look at Valjean's chakra signature if the missing nin still has the levels that earned him the moniker "The Jack," but he decides not to risk coma induced by extreme chakra depletion in case of emergency. "As ANBU, I was trusted to take care that these enthusiastic youngsters don't splatter their insides within our borders."

“And also for surveillance and supervision that they don’t do anything that might force the premature end of the peace treaty?”

“Naturally.”

If Valjean weren’t a dangerous criminal whose kekkei genkai almost leveled half of Takigakure when Javert first started chasing him ten years ago, he could say he is enjoying a companionable chat with him.

"This is the first time I saw your face."

Javert’s hand twitches, even though he really shouldn’t try and grasp at his waist to see if his mask is still attached there. “Well, what of it?”

“Even when we were students, you hid yourself so well in bandages, and your coat and hat.” Valjean looks again towards the direction where he is probably watching out for his daughter. “When I dreamed during the Infinite Tsukuyomi, I saw myself free from keeping secrets from Cosette, and doing penance for my past mistakes by teaching the younger generation that we can find creative solutions to our problems, and we don’t have to resort to hurting people for our lives to be worth something.” He turns towards Javert. “I saw myself walking in the streets of Kirigakure, and you were there. You called me by my name, and not my Kiri serial number. You even let me pet your wolves.” He gives a small smile. “You were still wearing a mask, because I didn’t know your face.”

Javert has a thousand things to say to that, ranging from petty (‘Wolves don’t like to be petted by criminals, 24601’) to outrage (‘Peace treaty or not, you still stole from Kiri’), but given that he is still helplessly lying prone on the ground, unable to do anything but look up at Valjean, maybe he needs to rethink his old mission. If Valjean was part of the Allied Shinobi Forces during the war, then Javert had unknowingly worked with him, and the way things are right now, the changes under Godaime-sama, however tenuous, might hold enough for Valjean to be able to return to Kirigakure.

“What did you dream about?”

Javert is startled enough by the question, from someone he exchanged almost lethal blows with, that he speaks without thinking. “That’s private.”

If he hadn’t grown up with and tracked this man through three hidden villages, he wouldn’t have seen the quick look of hurt on Valjean’s face. “I’m sorry.”

Still reeling from the fact that Valjean genuinely wanted to know, Javert finds the words pouring out of him like water. “I saw our classmates, the ones I killed before graduation. They were alive. You were also there, and all was as it were when we were children. We were playing in the snow.”

A strange feeling of lightness, previously unfelt and unlooked-for, settles within Javert that had nothing to do with his trickling chakra, or the completion of a mission. He lets the hushed moment linger, content with resting beside his once-enemy, until it is time to move again.


End file.
